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Employee mobility: risks and solutions (part 4)

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The option of mobility gives employees room to be more productive, without necessarily having to spend all their time at the office or traveling to and from the workplace, company formation and business solutions experts agree. However, this poses some risks that employers might want to consider watching out for.

While employers and staff generally agree upon output-based measures of performance while working away from the office, some form of fraud may still ensue from this kind of arrangement. Shirking can occur if company regulations on telecommuting are too lax. For instance, an employee might report that he is working, but is in reality just attending to personal matters, hence wasting precious company time. An employee might be using company resources such as the company-issued mobile phone and laptop on matters that are not strictly business–and charging calls or Internet connectivity to the office account. Telecommuting staff can probably come up with justifications for such actions, and it depends on the employer whether to impose sanctions.

In the end, managers and business owners can actually determine whether a telecommuting arrangement is effective with an assessment of the employee’s actual outputs. Is the employee able to accomplish his tasks on time? Is the company able to save on time and resources?

Employee mobility means freedom, but not necessarily freedom from responsibility.

Employee mobility: risks and solutions (part 1)

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Earlier, we wrote about how telecommuting can raise employee productivity and lessen staff absenteeism. True, today’s wired and un-wired lifestyles provide for a better environment for flexible work arrangements, as company formation experts suggest. However, there are also risks involved, and companies should take stock of these prior to plunging into the mobility bandwagon. We will describe a few here, and move on to explaining how the risks can be mitigated or resolved with simple solutions.

First issue is security risk. You might be happy that your employees purchase and use their own laptops for work. Yes, this translates to cost-savings, but pose a threat to the security of a company’s IT systems. Even if your office intranet is secure from the outside world, there is the possibility that a laptop brought in from outside and plugged into your intranet can wreak havoc by transmitting malicious software acquired from the Internet.

Business solutions experts and IT security consultants suggest implementing measures that increase the security within office intranets by strengthening the level of security in how employee-owned devices connect. Either have the IT department or staff connect the “alien” laptops using a cordoned-off area of the intranet, or instruct the employees to only connect to the office intranet within a virtual machine inside the laptop where he/she has limited access, to minimize the risk of inadvertently installing malware.

Employee mobility: risks and solutions (part 3)

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Employee mobility can be a boon or a bane. Telecommuting helps with employee productivity, as business solutions and company formation experts would agree. However, business should detect and address potential problems early on.

After security, another concern would be client loyalty. A problem with relying on employees using their own mobile phones for business use is that when that employee resigns, his clients have a tendency to move on with him if their primary contact point to your business is that employee’s mobile number.

In this case, it is best to ensure that mobile points of communication with telecommuting staff are still owned by the company. It may not save on costs in the short term, but if you own your staff’s business mobile phones, you are better assured that you will not lose the client contacts, and that these clients will not bypass you in favor of the competition in the case your employee decides to leave.

Employee Mobility: risks and solutions (part 2)

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Employee mobility can be a boon or a bane. Telecommuting helps with employee productivity, as business solutions experts would agree. However, companies should watch out for risks.

Along the lines of security, another concern would be device loss or theft. Company-issued laptops and mobile phones can be lost or stolen while the employee is in business dealings outside of the office. The issue is complicated in that you have to protect yourself two ways: from the possibility of the equipment being stolen by thieves, and by theft by your employees themselves.

The first issue—that of third-party theft—is more easily addressed. Invest in good security peripherals such as laptop cables with combination or keyed locks. These devices can also be insured for a minimal cost.

The second—that of employee fraud—can be more difficult to anticipate and handle. Laptops and mobiles are not difficult to hide, declared as lost or stolen, and later on fenced and passed on as used goods. A good way to mitigate such risk is to agree on a transfer of ownership with your staff, where they would actually have to purchase the gadgets they use for work on an installment scheme (they can pay for the purchase cost partially or in full). This way they won’t have the incentive to steal.

A good measure to address both is to have an up-to-date inventory of equipment, with the identity numbers registered with the appropriate authorities to ensure that they will be difficult to sell or dispose of if stolen. In fact, company formation experts recommend this as a standard procedure in the establishment of any brick-and-mortar business.

Telecommuting as solution to absenteeism and non-productivity

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In this day and age, an employee’s productivity may not necessarily be equated with how long he or she spends at the office or workplace. In fact, given rising travel costs, traffic congestion and the availability of high-speed data communications, one would wonder if it’s worth the trouble of having to spend a good part of the day traversing distances just to go to work. Furthermore, the decline in actual productivity after a certain number of work hours have been reached has to be taken into consideration.

Enter telecommuting. A buzzword in the business community since the dawn of the Information Age, this concept is pretty much still a very viable solution to any company’s problems with unproductive or sickly staff. The widespread availability of broadband Internet connections at residences and wireless Internet hotspots in cafes and commercial establishments enables employers and managers to be in closer touch with their staff from virtually anywhere.

Company formation and business solutions experts recommend that employers look into telecommuting as a possible solution to absenteeism and performance problems with employees.

It is likely that employees would be happier to carry on with their daily tasks if allowed more flexible schedules, and if they can work close to their families and communities. Businesses may experience a faster turnover of work if employees are allowed to work at the comfort of their home, using outputs as a gauge of productivity instead of time spent at the workplace. Instead of having to be absent, why not have your employees work at home?